Event

2014 Cascadia Poetry Festival

The second Cascadia Poetry Festival happens May 1-4, 2014, at Seattle University's Pigott Auditorium and Spring Street Center. The following schedule is the most current and is still subject to change. A Gold Pass is $25 for the whole weekend and access to all events, though some have limited space and will be first come-first served. Registration for students is free, and Cascadia Community College is sponsoring one credit for attending students.

Over four days the fest features Academic, Democratic and Performance components, late night readings, a Small Press Fair and one workshop. Some of the best poetry minds in the bioregion, many Canadians not well known in the U.S., will gather, discuss this place and begin to better understand Cascadia and our role here.

Friday, May 2, 9a-1p, Daphne Marlatt Workshop: In a Word, or Many: Where Language meets Terrain. Limited to 15 participants. This poetry workshop (which does not exclude prose) will investigate the ways words come to us in the act of writing when we situate ourselves on the threshold between our outer and inner worlds, with language as the sill for that threshold. We will look at how perception works linguistically, moving through lexicon and syntax, and relationally, within the locale, creatures and persons that sustain us. There will be writing time in the workshop as well as time for discussion and exchange. ($80 and not included in the Gold Pass.) Spring Street Center, 1101 15th in Seattle at the corner of 15th & Spring.

Friday, May 2, 3-5p, Living Room. A free and open democratic reading where people read their own work and listen to others in a circle format. No gold pass is necessary for entry. Spring Street Center, 1101 15th in Seattle at the corner of 15th & Spring.

Small Press Bookfair. Starting Friday at 6p. 30 small presses from around the bioregion display their wares and introduce you to poets from around Cascadia. Runs through the weekend in Paccar Atrium at Seattle U.

Saturday, May 3, 9a-10:10a, Cascadia Geography: Place & Spirit, David McCloskey, Professor Emeritus at Seattle U and Founder of the Cascadia Institute. The "Father of Cascadia" says: "Cascadia is a real place! A quick tour of the latest images and understandings of Cascadia's geography and ecology making it a distinctive bioregion with its own character and context." Paccar Atrium at Seattle U.

Saturday, May 3, 3-5p, Living Room. A free and open democratic reading where people read their own work and listen to others in a circle format. No gold pass is necessary for entry. Spring Street Center, 1101 15th in Seattle at the corner of 15th & Spring.

Saturday, May 3, 7:30p-9p Force Field/Feminists (Allergic to Cats) Reading. Emceed by Jocelyn McDonald (Seattle) this is an all women reading alternating between Northern Cascadia poets and those of Southern Cascadia. Pigott Auditorium at Seattle U.

Saturday, May 3, 10p-? The After Party. 30+ poets from around Cascadia read one poem each with lots of time for socializing between the three sets. Spring Street Center Reception Hall (downstairs). Spring Street Center, 1101 15th in Seattle at the corner of 15th & Spring.

Sunday, May 4, 3-5p, Living Room. A free and open democratic reading where people read their own work and listen to others in a circle format. No gold pass is necessary for entry. Spring Street Center, 1101 15th in Seattle at the corner of 15th & Spring.